Message From the Head 
Dear Parents,
A key focus for the school has been strengthening the academic and pastoral connections between Pre-Prep, Prep, and Upper Prep, ensuring a more consistent flight path for our pupils. A great example of this in practise was seen this week with our Netball and Rugby fixtures for the Pre-Prep, played under the lovely spring sun on Monday—what a fantastic afternoon! A special mention also goes to Wednesday’s sport—straight wins for Year 5 to Year 8 in all seven of their soccer fixtures, with maximum effort from the boys.
Connections matter. On Tuesday, we welcomed Sophie Baber, Head of Longacre, to collaborate on cross-school initiatives and mutual support. Parent involvement, both in our careers programme and more broadly, has been greatly appreciated in recent weeks. A special thank you goes to our Year 4 parent, Dr Thomson, for donating a whole class set of Artificial Intelligence by Professor Michael Wooldridge. I’ve already started using these with Year 8 children as we explore AI ethics and learning.
We had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Week! Thank you for your support in dressing the children as their favourite literary characters—it was an absolute joy. We also enjoyed a visit from author David Owen, inspiring our pupils to set their sights high. Likewise, the Spring Concert encouraged musical performances of all kinds.
Enjoy your weekend,
Mr Towers, Head
News from Upper Prep
The weather has been beautiful this week at Barrow Hills and it has been lovely to see the children playing football and cricket outside in the sunshine.
On Monday, the Year 8 children supported the children from Year 1 and Year 2 in a tournament with Pennthorpe School. I know they all really enjoyed helping the younger children and they set a great example to them all too in terms of their behaviour and engagement.
It was our spring concert on Tuesday and it was great to see Emilia and Delilah supporting the Larks Choir with their songs ‘Down in the Jungle’ and ‘My Face is Made of Onions’. The girls have attended regularly every Tuesday morning to help Mrs Davies with the choir. Delilah also sang a solo from the musical ‘Cinderella’ and Emilia played ‘The Arrival of the Queen Sheba’ on the piano. Well done, girls – it was super to celebrate your musical talents!
Everyone has enjoyed participating in the Book Week activities organised by our fabulous Librarian Mrs Dudley. These have included word puzzles, games and crosswords and a visit to King Edward’s School to meet the author Kathryn Evans. The children took part in a fantastic Writers’ Workshop to investigate how to create different characters and Kathryn Evans read us part of her book ‘More of Me’. She also commented on how beautifully behaved and imaginative the children were, which was wonderful to hear.
I was also very impressed with the effort all the Upper Prep children put into their costumes. The children in Year 8 receive a special mention for dressing up as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves!
Finally, huge congratulations to George from Year 8 who has gained a drama scholarship AND a sports scholarship to King Edward’s School. Well done George – this is a fantastic achievement and we are very proud of you.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend – enjoy the sunshine!
Mrs Mason, Head of Upper Prep
News from Prep
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr Seuss
As Book Week draws to a close, it is heartening to take a moment to reflect on the joy the children (and staff) took in the events of the past few days. It was wonderful to witness the peace the children found in ‘Drop Everything and Read’, their enthusiasm when meeting our visiting author, and their unbridled joy in bringing so many characters to life yesterday with their creative and inspiring outfits.
This week also saw a record number of Parent Consultations taking place in the Refectory. Parent consultations offer a fantastic opportunity to share the children’s achievements and future learning goals. It was great to see some of the older children accompanying their parents and taking a mature approach to the feedback and guidance offered by their teachers. Another highlight of the week was Tuesday’s Spring Concert where, once again, the children’s musical abilities and confidence to perform in front of a large audience shone through, reminding us all of the breadth of the Barrow Hills experience. Thank you to the Music Department!
Today’s Open Morning was a wonderful opportunity to showcase just how much Barrow Hills has to offer. A huge thank you to our fabulous Year 7 children who were excellent tour guides, our catering team for putting on such a welcoming mid morning spread, and everyone behind the scenes who ensured the day ran smoothly.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.
Miss Tyrrell, Head of Prep
News from Pre-Prep
Book Week is always a highlight of the school calendar and this year was no exception. On Wednesday, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 welcomed David Owen, author of the ‘Alex Neptune’ series of books for children. David showed the children a selection of his books from the series including “Dragon Thief”, “Pirate Hunter” and “Monster Avenger”. He explained where the ideas for this series of books came from and discussed the illustrations on the front covers with the children. David read an extract of one of his books to us all before the children were invited to ask him questions about the books and about being an author. World Book Day was, of course, on Thursday and what a range of wonderful costumes we saw. The sun was shining and the smiles on the children radiated joy all day, especially first thing when we all gathered for a class assembly led by Year 2. The children shared some of their favourite stories, as well as the importance of reading through a very upbeat song which they performed at the end and had us all tapping our feet. Well done, Year 2.
Shrove Tuesday was also this week of course, and as well as pancakes for lunch, Kindy and Reception made their own pancakes in class. I arrived in Kindy at just the right time as Mrs Withers, Mrs Taylor and Mrs Warner were handing out the toppings for the children to try!
Congratulations to Valo (Rec), Alexander (Y1) and Orson (Y2) who each received Work of the Week this morning at whole school assembly. Valo’s retelling of ‘Ridiculous’ using a story map, Alexander’s fantastic determination to develop his cursive script and Orson’s detailed fact book about lions in Africa all earned them awards this week. Well done too to those who have been busy achieving house points and have now earned their Silver Awards. Indy, Alex and Anabella from Reception, Teddy, Sophie, India, and Rocco from Year 1, and Ottilie in Year 2 were all presented with their certificates from our Head Boy and Head Girl. Well done everyone.
Next week is another themed week to look forward to; STEM Week. Year 1’s class assembly is taking place next Thursday at 8.35am, a fire engine visit and House Music for Year 1 to Year 8 make for a busy week with lots going on.
In the meantime, have a restful weekend.
Mrs Barnett, Head of Pre-Prep